duPont Library: Primary Historical Sources: Europe

Europe - 1700's and Before

19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1545-1900
Location: Europe
A collection of the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. They provide primary sources with which to study the socio-political and economic landscape of 19th century Britain. Collection includes items published between 1545 and 1900. To search, choose one of the collections listed on the page. To search all pamphlet collections, choose Advanced Search and limit to pamphlets.
Collections include: Bristol Selected pamphlets, Cowen Tracts, Earl Grey Pamphlets collection, Foreign and Commonwealth Office collection, Hume Tracts, Knowsley Pamphlet collection, and LSE (London School of Economics) Selected pamphlets.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1621-present
Location: North America; Europe
A searchable text and image database of family history and genealogy materials, including census and voter data; birth, marriage, and death records; immigration records including passenger lists; naturalization records; selected court, land and probate records; German emigration records; United States border crossing information; and United States military and draft records. Note: this academic version of Ancestry.com does not include some of the sources and functionality of the personal subscription version such as the ability to create a family tree. Available from on-campus only.
The bulk of the census data included is from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western Europe; there are also a limited number of censuses from other parts of the world and U.S. state censuses. Includes data from 1621 to present, although the latest census information dates from 1940.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: Ancient to 20th century
Location: Europe
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. You may need to click on "Log in" when you get to the page. Login should be automatic.
Includes full-text editions of primary sources, such as the journals of the houses of Parliament or manorial records such as feet of fines. Modern synthetic historical writing, including the Victoria County History and the Survey of London. Printed guides and calendars of manuscript collections, such as the Calendars of State Papers. Dictionaries and gazetteers of places, property, goods and commodities. Maps from the Ordnance Survey and historic maps from before 1800.
British Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Time period: Pre-history to present
Location: Europe, UK
Primary sources and archival material relating to British history and the broader UK and Europe. Includes written words, sound recordings, still images, maps, and more.
Some collections are freely accessible, others are limited to subscription access.
British Library Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1732-1950
Location: Europe
Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, British Library Newspapers delivers a wide range of irreplaceable local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. These newspapers, emerging during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a crucial channel of information in towns and major cities, provide researchers with a unique, first-hand perspective on history. With more than 160 newspaper titles, the series is comprised of approximately 5.5 million pages of historic content, from articles to advertisements. This collection illuminates diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and vernaculars, providing an alternative viewpoint to the London-centric national press over a period of more than 200 years.
British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900

Ranging from early tabloids like the Illustrated Police News to radical papers like the Chartist Northern Star, publications in Part I span a vast range of national, regional, and local interests. Other notable papers of Part I include the Morning Chronicle, with famous contributors such as Henry Mayhew and John Stewart Mill; the Graphic, publishing both illustrations and news as well as illustrated fiction; and the Examiner, the radical reformist and leading intellectual journal.

British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800-1900

Part II further expands the range of English regional newspapers and the political views represented in the programme. Researchers can find the newspapers of a number of significant towns and regions included in this collection: Nottingham, Bradford, Leicester, Sheffield, and York, as well as North Wales. The addition of two major London newspapers, The Standard and the Morning Post, helps capture conservative opinion in the nineteenth century, balancing the progressive, more liberal views of the newspapers that appear in Part I.

British Library Newspapers, Part III: 1741-1950

Part III adds even more regional and local depth to the series, encompassing powerful provincial news journals like the Leeds Intelligencer and Hull Daily Mail, local interest publications such as the Northampton Mercury, and specialist titles such as the Poor Law Unions’ Gazette. Other noteworthy titles in Part III include the Westmoreland Gazette, whose early editor, Thomas DeQuincy (of Confessions of an English Opium Eater) was forced to resign due to his unreliability.

British Library Newspapers, Part IV: 1732-1950

From key early newspaper titles like the Stamford Mercury to what is possibly the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, the Scots Magazine, Part IV offers key local and regional perspectives from cities as geographically diverse as Aberdeen, Bath, Chester, Derby, Belfast, Liverpool, and York. In addition, Part IV includes the 1901-1950 runs of papers such as the Aberdeen Journal and Dundee Courier whose earlier newspapers are available in Part I and Part II.
British Newspapers Parts 3 and 4, 1780-1950 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1732-1950
Location: Europe
British Newspapers Part 3 spans the late 18th century to the early 20th century,featuring new content and sources such as the Sheffield Daily Telegraph,Leeds Intelligencer,Yorkshire Gazette,Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury. British Newspapers,Part IV ranges from the late 18th century to early 20th century. Noteworthy new titles include: Evening Telegraph,Yorkshire Gazette,Nottingham Evening Post,Illustrated Times ,Edinburgh Evening News, Chester Chronicle, Cheltenham Chronicle, Cambridge Independent Press, Belfast Morning News, Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, and Aberdeen Journal.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1920
Location: Europe
Defining Gender is a collection of digitized original documents relating to Gender Studies. The sources come from libraries and archives throughout the world, including many from the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.Contains ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, poetry, receipt books and conduct and advice literature.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1473-1700
Location: North America, Europe
A collection of digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
Sources: Early English Books I (Pollard & Redgrave, STC I), 1475-1640, Early English Books II (Wing, STC II), 1641-1700, Thomason Tracts.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1701-1800
Location: North America, Europe
A digitized collection of 150,000 English and foreign language books, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera published in the U.K. and the Americas between 1701 and 1800. Content is presented as full text page images which can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF documents. With full-text searching of approximately 26 million pages, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.
The collection is an ongoing project based on The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), a machine-readable union list of the holdings of the British Library, as well as those from more than 1,500 university, private, and public libraries worldwide. Search interface: Gale InfoTrac.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History This link opens in a new window
Time Period: prehistory to present day
Location: Europe
Website from Brigham Young University with links to freely available European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. The documents shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history. The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.
"No guarantee of accuracy is implied or assumed, particularly for remote links over which the webmaster has no control."
Making of the modern world, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1945
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa
Provides digital facsimile images of books, serials, pamphlets, essays and other unique primary sources that track the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Has full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1850. Provides material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more.
Part I is based on Gale's microfilm collection: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. It combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections--the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration--along with supplementary materials from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and from the libraries of Yale University.
Manchester Medieval Sources Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 650-1600
Location: Europe
A collection of English translations of key medieval texts from Manchester University Press, focusing on the diverse cultural and social as well as political conditions that affected the functioning of all levels of medieval society. Each volume includes a comprehensive guide to the sources' interpretation, including discussion of critical linguistic problems and an assessment of the most recent research on the topics being covered.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1797-1947
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Includes serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1600-1800
Location: Europe
The newspapers and pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media available anywhere. The 1,270-title collection includes a wide range of pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers from the period, covering more than 200 years of accounts from newspapers from England, Ireland, Scotland and a handful of papers from British colonies in the Americas and Asia. The collection chronicles a critical period in the political history of Great Britain and as well as the early history of journalism in the English-speaking world.
State Papers Online, 1509-1714 (British) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1509-1714
Location: Europe
A collection of English government documents originating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Facsimile manuscript documents can be accessed directly or via the fully searchable Calendar. Contains information on every facet of English government, including social and economic affairs, law and order, religious policy, crown possessions and intelligence gathering as well as Britain's international relations and foreign policy.
State Papers Online includes:
* Letters to and from local officers or private persons
* Letters to and from the monarchs
* Letters to and from the Secretaries of State
* Documents in cipher
* Letters to and from ambassadors abroad
* Instructions to commissioners and to special missions
* Depositions, documents covering the Crown's revenues and possessions
* Private papers and papers produced by the office's internal administration
* Drafts of proposals or of acts of Parliament
World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1400s to present
Locations: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.
This collection contains cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections. The original World Digital Library site (preserved in LC’s Web Archives) and all descriptive metadata were translated from English and made available in six additional languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese.

Europe - 1800's

19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1545-1900
Location: Europe
A collection of the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. They provide primary sources with which to study the socio-political and economic landscape of 19th century Britain. Collection includes items published between 1545 and 1900. To search, choose one of the collections listed on the page. To search all pamphlet collections, choose Advanced Search and limit to pamphlets.
Collections include: Bristol Selected pamphlets, Cowen Tracts, Earl Grey Pamphlets collection, Foreign and Commonwealth Office collection, Hume Tracts, Knowsley Pamphlet collection, and LSE (London School of Economics) Selected pamphlets.
Alexander III and the Policy of “Russification,” 1883-1886 This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1883-1886
Location: Europe
The British Foreign Office Records of General Correspondence for Russia, in record class F.O. 65, is the basic collection of documents for studying Anglo-Russian relations during this period of fundamental change.
This collection, as seen through the eyes of the British diplomatic corps in Russia, provides a unique analysis of this "retro-reform" policy, including the increase of revolutionary agitation, deepening of conservatism and changes from agrarian to industrial society, and spread of pan-Slavism, both in the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1621-present
Location: North America; Europe
A searchable text and image database of family history and genealogy materials, including census and voter data; birth, marriage, and death records; immigration records including passenger lists; naturalization records; selected court, land and probate records; German emigration records; United States border crossing information; and United States military and draft records. Note: this academic version of Ancestry.com does not include some of the sources and functionality of the personal subscription version such as the ability to create a family tree. Available from on-campus only.
The bulk of the census data included is from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western Europe; there are also a limited number of censuses from other parts of the world and U.S. state censuses. Includes data from 1621 to present, although the latest census information dates from 1940.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1827-1975
Location: North America, Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania
Essays, primary sources, biographies, timelines, and other materials including documents from historic newspapers and magazines for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases.. Includes Black Studies Periodicals database and Black Literature Index 1827-1940. Supports Black Studies, History, Literature, Women's Studies and Religion. Time period: 1827-1975.
Includes Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience-- cross-disciplinary essays by today's leading scholars in Black Studies; backfiles of leading African-American newspaper, The Chicago Defender, 1910-1975;journals from Africa, the U.S., and the Caribbean; 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: Ancient to 20th century
Location: Europe
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. You may need to click on "Log in" when you get to the page. Login should be automatic.
Includes full-text editions of primary sources, such as the journals of the houses of Parliament or manorial records such as feet of fines. Modern synthetic historical writing, including the Victoria County History and the Survey of London. Printed guides and calendars of manuscript collections, such as the Calendars of State Papers. Dictionaries and gazetteers of places, property, goods and commodities. Maps from the Ordnance Survey and historic maps from before 1800.
British Library Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1732-1950
Location: Europe
Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, British Library Newspapers delivers a wide range of irreplaceable local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. These newspapers, emerging during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a crucial channel of information in towns and major cities, provide researchers with a unique, first-hand perspective on history. With more than 160 newspaper titles, the series is comprised of approximately 5.5 million pages of historic content, from articles to advertisements. This collection illuminates diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and vernaculars, providing an alternative viewpoint to the London-centric national press over a period of more than 200 years.
British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900

Ranging from early tabloids like the Illustrated Police News to radical papers like the Chartist Northern Star, publications in Part I span a vast range of national, regional, and local interests. Other notable papers of Part I include the Morning Chronicle, with famous contributors such as Henry Mayhew and John Stewart Mill; the Graphic, publishing both illustrations and news as well as illustrated fiction; and the Examiner, the radical reformist and leading intellectual journal.

British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800-1900

Part II further expands the range of English regional newspapers and the political views represented in the programme. Researchers can find the newspapers of a number of significant towns and regions included in this collection: Nottingham, Bradford, Leicester, Sheffield, and York, as well as North Wales. The addition of two major London newspapers, The Standard and the Morning Post, helps capture conservative opinion in the nineteenth century, balancing the progressive, more liberal views of the newspapers that appear in Part I.

British Library Newspapers, Part III: 1741-1950

Part III adds even more regional and local depth to the series, encompassing powerful provincial news journals like the Leeds Intelligencer and Hull Daily Mail, local interest publications such as the Northampton Mercury, and specialist titles such as the Poor Law Unions’ Gazette. Other noteworthy titles in Part III include the Westmoreland Gazette, whose early editor, Thomas DeQuincy (of Confessions of an English Opium Eater) was forced to resign due to his unreliability.

British Library Newspapers, Part IV: 1732-1950

From key early newspaper titles like the Stamford Mercury to what is possibly the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, the Scots Magazine, Part IV offers key local and regional perspectives from cities as geographically diverse as Aberdeen, Bath, Chester, Derby, Belfast, Liverpool, and York. In addition, Part IV includes the 1901-1950 runs of papers such as the Aberdeen Journal and Dundee Courier whose earlier newspapers are available in Part I and Part II.
British Newspapers Parts 3 and 4, 1780-1950 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1732-1950
Location: Europe
British Newspapers Part 3 spans the late 18th century to the early 20th century,featuring new content and sources such as the Sheffield Daily Telegraph,Leeds Intelligencer,Yorkshire Gazette,Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury. British Newspapers,Part IV ranges from the late 18th century to early 20th century. Noteworthy new titles include: Evening Telegraph,Yorkshire Gazette,Nottingham Evening Post,Illustrated Times ,Edinburgh Evening News, Chester Chronicle, Cheltenham Chronicle, Cambridge Independent Press, Belfast Morning News, Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, and Aberdeen Journal.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1804-2009
Location: South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
This resource provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules. Module 1 features publications from the CMS and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009. The focus of Module 2 is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1920
Location: Europe
Defining Gender is a collection of digitized original documents relating to Gender Studies. The sources come from libraries and archives throughout the world, including many from the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.Contains ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, poetry, receipt books and conduct and advice literature.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1701-1800
Location: North America, Europe
A digitized collection of 150,000 English and foreign language books, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera published in the U.K. and the Americas between 1701 and 1800. Content is presented as full text page images which can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF documents. With full-text searching of approximately 26 million pages, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.
The collection is an ongoing project based on The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), a machine-readable union list of the holdings of the British Library, as well as those from more than 1,500 university, private, and public libraries worldwide. Search interface: Gale InfoTrac.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History This link opens in a new window
Time Period: prehistory to present day
Location: Europe
Website from Brigham Young University with links to freely available European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. The documents shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history. The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.
"No guarantee of accuracy is implied or assumed, particularly for remote links over which the webmaster has no control."
Making of the modern world, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1945
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa
Provides digital facsimile images of books, serials, pamphlets, essays and other unique primary sources that track the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Has full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1850. Provides material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more.
Part I is based on Gale's microfilm collection: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. It combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections--the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration--along with supplementary materials from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and from the libraries of Yale University.
Medical Services and Warfare: 1850-1927 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1850-1949
Location: Europe, North America, Africa, Oceania
Medical Services and Warfare tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives. Material has been sourced from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to enable comparisons on key areas of systematic reform, improvements to sanitation and the treatment of disease, rehabilitation, nursing care, surgical techniques and wound treatment. The three conflicts robustly represented are the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the First World War.
Note: this database was sold in two parts: Module 1: 1850-1927, and Module 2: 1928-1949. The library only purchased Module 1.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1797-1947
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Includes serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.
Queen Victoria's Journals This link opens in a new window
This resource reproduces every page of the surviving volumes of Queen Victoria's journals as high-resolution color images along with separate photographs of the many illustrations and inserts within the pages. Each page is also being meticulously transcribed and re-keyed, allowing for journals to be searched. As well as detailing household and family matters, the journals reflect affairs of state, describe meetings with statesmen and other eminent figures, and comment on the literature of the day. Queen Victoria’s journals represent a valuable primary source for scholars of nineteenth century British political and social history and for those working on gender and autobiographical writing.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1600-1800
Location: Europe
The newspapers and pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media available anywhere. The 1,270-title collection includes a wide range of pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers from the period, covering more than 200 years of accounts from newspapers from England, Ireland, Scotland and a handful of papers from British colonies in the Americas and Asia. The collection chronicles a critical period in the political history of Great Britain and as well as the early history of journalism in the English-speaking world.
Women and Social Movements, International -- 1840 to present This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1840-2011
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Online archive of published and manuscript primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century. The archive includes proceedings of women's international conferences, books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers and journals, as well as correspondence, diary entries, and memoirs. It is also rich in online publications of contemporary Non-Governmental Organizations. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Europe - 1900's

19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1545-1900
Location: Europe
A collection of the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. They provide primary sources with which to study the socio-political and economic landscape of 19th century Britain. Collection includes items published between 1545 and 1900. To search, choose one of the collections listed on the page. To search all pamphlet collections, choose Advanced Search and limit to pamphlets.
Collections include: Bristol Selected pamphlets, Cowen Tracts, Earl Grey Pamphlets collection, Foreign and Commonwealth Office collection, Hume Tracts, Knowsley Pamphlet collection, and LSE (London School of Economics) Selected pamphlets.
Albania: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1945-1963
Location: Europe
The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Part of Archives Unbound.
Albania established a Communist regime and a one-party system under Yugoslav and Soviet guidance. The People's Republic of Albania, declared in January 1946, was led by Enver Hoxha (1908-1985), Stalin's disciple, who served as party general secretary, prime minister, and commander in chief.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1621-present
Location: North America; Europe
A searchable text and image database of family history and genealogy materials, including census and voter data; birth, marriage, and death records; immigration records including passenger lists; naturalization records; selected court, land and probate records; German emigration records; United States border crossing information; and United States military and draft records. Note: this academic version of Ancestry.com does not include some of the sources and functionality of the personal subscription version such as the ability to create a family tree. Available from on-campus only.
The bulk of the census data included is from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western Europe; there are also a limited number of censuses from other parts of the world and U.S. state censuses. Includes data from 1621 to present, although the latest census information dates from 1940.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1827-1975
Location: North America, Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania
Essays, primary sources, biographies, timelines, and other materials including documents from historic newspapers and magazines for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases.. Includes Black Studies Periodicals database and Black Literature Index 1827-1940. Supports Black Studies, History, Literature, Women's Studies and Religion. Time period: 1827-1975.
Includes Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience-- cross-disciplinary essays by today's leading scholars in Black Studies; backfiles of leading African-American newspaper, The Chicago Defender, 1910-1975;journals from Africa, the U.S., and the Caribbean; 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: Ancient to 20th century
Location: Europe
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. You may need to click on "Log in" when you get to the page. Login should be automatic.
Includes full-text editions of primary sources, such as the journals of the houses of Parliament or manorial records such as feet of fines. Modern synthetic historical writing, including the Victoria County History and the Survey of London. Printed guides and calendars of manuscript collections, such as the Calendars of State Papers. Dictionaries and gazetteers of places, property, goods and commodities. Maps from the Ordnance Survey and historic maps from before 1800.
British Library Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1732-1950
Location: Europe
Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, British Library Newspapers delivers a wide range of irreplaceable local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. These newspapers, emerging during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a crucial channel of information in towns and major cities, provide researchers with a unique, first-hand perspective on history. With more than 160 newspaper titles, the series is comprised of approximately 5.5 million pages of historic content, from articles to advertisements. This collection illuminates diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and vernaculars, providing an alternative viewpoint to the London-centric national press over a period of more than 200 years.
British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900

Ranging from early tabloids like the Illustrated Police News to radical papers like the Chartist Northern Star, publications in Part I span a vast range of national, regional, and local interests. Other notable papers of Part I include the Morning Chronicle, with famous contributors such as Henry Mayhew and John Stewart Mill; the Graphic, publishing both illustrations and news as well as illustrated fiction; and the Examiner, the radical reformist and leading intellectual journal.

British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800-1900

Part II further expands the range of English regional newspapers and the political views represented in the programme. Researchers can find the newspapers of a number of significant towns and regions included in this collection: Nottingham, Bradford, Leicester, Sheffield, and York, as well as North Wales. The addition of two major London newspapers, The Standard and the Morning Post, helps capture conservative opinion in the nineteenth century, balancing the progressive, more liberal views of the newspapers that appear in Part I.

British Library Newspapers, Part III: 1741-1950

Part III adds even more regional and local depth to the series, encompassing powerful provincial news journals like the Leeds Intelligencer and Hull Daily Mail, local interest publications such as the Northampton Mercury, and specialist titles such as the Poor Law Unions’ Gazette. Other noteworthy titles in Part III include the Westmoreland Gazette, whose early editor, Thomas DeQuincy (of Confessions of an English Opium Eater) was forced to resign due to his unreliability.

British Library Newspapers, Part IV: 1732-1950

From key early newspaper titles like the Stamford Mercury to what is possibly the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, the Scots Magazine, Part IV offers key local and regional perspectives from cities as geographically diverse as Aberdeen, Bath, Chester, Derby, Belfast, Liverpool, and York. In addition, Part IV includes the 1901-1950 runs of papers such as the Aberdeen Journal and Dundee Courier whose earlier newspapers are available in Part I and Part II.
British Newspapers Parts 3 and 4, 1780-1950 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1732-1950
Location: Europe
British Newspapers Part 3 spans the late 18th century to the early 20th century,featuring new content and sources such as the Sheffield Daily Telegraph,Leeds Intelligencer,Yorkshire Gazette,Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury. British Newspapers,Part IV ranges from the late 18th century to early 20th century. Noteworthy new titles include: Evening Telegraph,Yorkshire Gazette,Nottingham Evening Post,Illustrated Times ,Edinburgh Evening News, Chester Chronicle, Cheltenham Chronicle, Cambridge Independent Press, Belfast Morning News, Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, and Aberdeen Journal.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1804-2009
Location: South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
This resource provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules. Module 1 features publications from the CMS and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009. The focus of Module 2 is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children.
Commercial and Trade Relations Between Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union and the U.S., 1910-1963 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1910-1963
Location: North America, Europe
This collection of U.S. State Department Central Classified Files relates to commercial and trade relations beginning in the Tsarist Russia period and extending through Khrushchev period in Soviet history. It contains a wide range of materials from U.S. diplomats including materials on treaties, general conditions affecting trade, imports and exports, laws and regulations, customs administration, tariffs, and ports of entry activities.
Country intelligence reports on USSR This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1941-1947
Location: Europe
This collection consists of research and intelligence reports prepared during 1941-1947 on USSR. The reports vary from short memorandums to detailed, documented studies.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1920
Location: Europe
Defining Gender is a collection of digitized original documents relating to Gender Studies. The sources come from libraries and archives throughout the world, including many from the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.Contains ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, poetry, receipt books and conduct and advice literature.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History This link opens in a new window
Time Period: prehistory to present day
Location: Europe
Website from Brigham Young University with links to freely available European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. The documents shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history. The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.
"No guarantee of accuracy is implied or assumed, particularly for remote links over which the webmaster has no control."
Hungary: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1945-1963
Location: Europe
Hungary from the end of the Second World War to 1963 is the focus of this collection. Covered here is the critical period of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 against the Soviet-backed government, and one of the most dramatic events of the Cold War, the flow of tens of thousands of refugees out of Hungary is tracked in many records. The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Immigrations, migrations and refugees: global perspectives, 1941-1996. This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1941-1996
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
A searchable digital archive that covers all aspects of 20th-century human migration. The news and analysis comes from reports gathered every day between the early 1940s and 1996 by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a U.S. government organization that became part of the CIA . These include translated and English-language radio and television broadcasts (transcripts), newspapers, periodicals and government documents.
Making of the modern world, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1945
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa
Provides digital facsimile images of books, serials, pamphlets, essays and other unique primary sources that track the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Has full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1850. Provides material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more.
Part I is based on Gale's microfilm collection: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. It combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections--the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration--along with supplementary materials from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and from the libraries of Yale University.
Medical Services and Warfare: 1850-1927 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1850-1949
Location: Europe, North America, Africa, Oceania
Medical Services and Warfare tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives. Material has been sourced from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to enable comparisons on key areas of systematic reform, improvements to sanitation and the treatment of disease, rehabilitation, nursing care, surgical techniques and wound treatment. The three conflicts robustly represented are the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the First World War.
Note: this database was sold in two parts: Module 1: 1850-1927, and Module 2: 1928-1949. The library only purchased Module 1.
Nazism in Poland : the diary of Governor-General Hans Frank. This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1939-1945
Location: Europe
This collection reproduces the Tagebuch or journal of Dr. Hans Frank (1900-1946), the Governor-General of German-occupied Poland from October 1939 until early 1945. The journal is in typed format, in chronological order, covering all aspect of Generalgouvernment (GG) administration from its seat in the royal Wawel castle in Krakau (Kraków). The entries reflect administrative matters, rather than the spontaneous thoughts or feelings usually found in a diary.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1797-1947
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Includes serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.
Poland: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1945-1963
Location: Europe
After the Second World War Stalin's highest priority in Eastern Europe was the takeover of Poland. The rigged elections in January 1947 followed by the merger of the Communist and Socialist parties in December 1948 assured the complete Communist takeover of the country. The new regime exercised near total control over society and established a command economy. Hence, for example, documents on internal security force activities in 1949 note "intensified attacks by Anglo-American imperialism." The documents here are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1945-1950
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Includes primary sources for the study and understanding of the challenges facing the European peoples in the aftermath of World War II. Covers the politics and administration of the refugee crisis in Europe after World War II as well as the day-to-day survival of the refugees themselves.
Romania: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1945-1963
Location: Europe
Romania in the postwar Stalinist era is the subject of this archive. The Red Army swept into Romania in 1944, and in the late 1940s and 1950s the Romanian Communist Party imposed a totalitarian regime. An elaborate security system manned by the secret police and supported by a repressive prison network, enforced obedience to the party. The documents here are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Socialism and national unity in Yugloslavia, 1945-63: records of the U.S. State Department classified files This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1945-1963
Location: Europe
This collection documents the history of Yugoslavia from the end of World War II. In an effort to avoid Serbian domination during the post-war years, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro were given separate and equal republican status within the new socialist federation of Yugoslavia; Kosovo and Vojvodina were made autonomous provinces within Yugoslavia. Despite the attempts at a federal system of government for Yugoslavia, Serbia played the leading role in Yugoslavia's political life for the next 4 decades. Under communist rule, Yugoslavia was transformed from an agrarian to an industrial society.
Women, War and Society, 1914-1918 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1914-1918
Location: North America, Europe, Oceania
The First World War had a revolutionary and permanent impact on the personal, social and professional lives of all women. Their essential contribution to the war in Europe is fully documented in this definitive collection of primary source materials brought together in the Imperial War Museum, London. These unique documents - charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs, press cuttings, magazines, posters, correspondence, minutes, records, diaries, memoranda, statistics, circulars, regulations and invitations - are published in fully-searchable form, along with interpretative essays from leading scholars. Useful for the study of 20th-Century social, political, military and gender history.
Women and Social Movements, International -- 1840 to present This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1840-2011
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Online archive of published and manuscript primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century. The archive includes proceedings of women's international conferences, books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers and journals, as well as correspondence, diary entries, and memoirs. It is also rich in online publications of contemporary Non-Governmental Organizations. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Europe - 2000's

Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1621-present
Location: North America; Europe
A searchable text and image database of family history and genealogy materials, including census and voter data; birth, marriage, and death records; immigration records including passenger lists; naturalization records; selected court, land and probate records; German emigration records; United States border crossing information; and United States military and draft records. Note: this academic version of Ancestry.com does not include some of the sources and functionality of the personal subscription version such as the ability to create a family tree. Available from on-campus only.
The bulk of the census data included is from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western Europe; there are also a limited number of censuses from other parts of the world and U.S. state censuses. Includes data from 1621 to present, although the latest census information dates from 1940.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1804-2009
Location: South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
This resource provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules. Module 1 features publications from the CMS and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009. The focus of Module 2 is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History This link opens in a new window
Time Period: prehistory to present day
Location: Europe
Website from Brigham Young University with links to freely available European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. The documents shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history. The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.
"No guarantee of accuracy is implied or assumed, particularly for remote links over which the webmaster has no control."
Women and Social Movements, International -- 1840 to present This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1840-2011
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Online archive of published and manuscript primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century. The archive includes proceedings of women's international conferences, books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers and journals, as well as correspondence, diary entries, and memoirs. It is also rich in online publications of contemporary Non-Governmental Organizations. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Jessie Ball duPont Library

Primary Historical Sources

Europe - 1700's and Before

Europe - 1800's

Europe - 1900's

Europe - 2000's